Campus to Host Drum Day Celebration

The 2005 Missouri Day of Percussion will take place on Truman’s campus April 16.

This event is sponsored annually by the Missouri Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society. Featured guests include renowned percussion artists Bob Becker, Gregg Bissonette and Tom Siwe.

Becker is a founding member of the Grammy award-winning Canadian group Nexus. He is considered the world’s leading xylophone virtuoso in the ragtime style.

Bissonette is considered to be among the greatest and most versatile drum set artists of our day. Most notably, his music can be heard on the Santana’s Grammy award-winning album “Supernatural.”

Siwe is a professor emeritus of percussion performance and literature at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. The Percussion Day also will include performances by high school and University percussion ensembles and soloists, workshops for percussionists of all ages, exhibits by several regional and national percussion manufacturers and distributors, as well as a giveaway of percussion door prizes to random attendees.

A complete schedule of activities can be accessed at http://www.pas.org/Chapters/Missouri/. Registration begins at 8 a.m., in the Ophelia Parrish Fine Arts Center Lobby.

All events are open to the Truman and Kirksville communities. Admission is $10 or $5 with a valid PAS membership card.

For more information, contact the event director Michael Bump at 785.4052 or mbump@truman.edu.